A noted neurologist, Alzheimer’s disease researcher and former vice president
and dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Steven DeKosky ’68
was portrayed in the 2015 film Concussion. His discovery with Dr. Bennet Omalu
(played by Will Smith) that Pittsburgh Steelers’ Hall of Fame lineman Mike
Webster sustained significant brain damage has led to significant changes in the
NFL’s rules on player safety. As interim executive director of the McKnight
Brain Institute of the University of Florida, he still works to make the game safer.

Q:How did it feel to be portrayed on the big screen?

A:I’ve received [a lot of] ribbing, because I’m about 6-2, and
Eddie Marsan [who plays DeKosky in
Concussion] is a relatively short fellow.
I was hoping for Tom Selleck. It’s a
weird thing to see yourself [depicted]
on camera.

Q:As a football and sports fan who knows what blows to the
head can do to the brain, do you undergo an internal struggle when watching
high-impact sports?

A:I do. But there are a lot of people who play football and are
cognitively fine in their 70s. We don’t
know how frequently it emerges in
people or why [in] some but not others.

We are studying it now. I learned to box
when I was at Bucknell. When they call
it the Sweet Science, I agree with that.

As much as I appreciate the beauty
of boxing, I don’t like it, and I won’t
watch it. I would not object if boxing
were outlawed, because the singular
purpose of it is to hurt the head — to
score a knockout.

Q:As the film illustrated, your esearch showed that the neuro-fibrillary tangles in Webster’s and other
football players’ brains looked like
dementia pugilistica, a cognitive
disorder that had already been accepted
as a risk for boxers. Was the revolutionary
aspect of the research the fact the
impairment was now seen directly in
football players?

A:You got it. When we looked at the slides, we figured it was dementia
pugilistica. The reason it was justifiable
for Bennet to pick a new name was that
dementia pugilistica implies [a fighter]
from the name. But this wasn’t just
happening in boxers. Chronic traumatic
encephalopathy is more of the generic
name. You could [call it] CTE due to
boxing, therefore dementia pugilistica;
CTE dementia footballistica didn’t have
the right ring.

Q:Late in a big game this winter the Steelers’ star quarterback,Ben Roethlisberger, took himself outdue to the fear that he’d sustained aconcussion. It was later revealed hehad one. Do you think that was a bigstep for the NFL — to see a big namelike that, one synonymous with tough-ness — take himself out of a game forhis own safety?

A:If he took himself out for safety, I admire him even more. When
I was his age I felt I was absolutely
invulnerable. If he took himself out
because he was concerned about his
safety or he recognized that something
was wrong and his passes were not
doing well, or both, I think that’s a
huge step.

Q:You now work at the University of Florida, a football powerhouse.
Are you helping the university make the
game safer?

A:There’s a concussion group that comprises a team of physicians,physical therapists, rehabilitationspecialists [and] a couple of neurolo-gists. So we’re getting more involvedwith the team. I was very impressedwith the seriousness with which theytook the head-injury work, and CoachMac [Jim McElwain] and the UniversityAthletic Association were willing tosupport it. This is how the college rankscan help and pass that information ondown to high-school and junior-high-school coaches. M INDYC.MILLER/UNIVERSITYOFFLORIDABy Alexander DiegelSteven DeKosky ’68